Why you shouldn't eat dog. Not even once.

It may be irrational to object to dog eating. But when rationalism is divorced from human feeling, it becomes crude and vulgar.

People in Southeast Asia eat dogs, so why don't we eat bisque of schnauzer and terrier lasagna? People in India don't eat cows, but that's just religious mumbo jumbo. Why do we euthanize dogs when we could be making 7-11 taquitos from them? I can't figure it out. This is pretty much the whole of John D. Sutter's "argument for eating dog," which has already received 5,000 comments and been liked on Facebook 18,000 times.

Sutter has let rationalist premises lead him into an alleyway. He's stuck with his disgust at the idea of eating dogs but bereft of a reason to respect his disgust. And he ends with an admonition to think harder, though he despairs of an answer.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.